Bird of a Cage [BoW 4]

Chapter 16

The ground shook with the force of the wind, the vents blowing out cold and wild air and rattling metal in its wake. Even with the shutters closed, a long whistling sound pierced through the base, and the echo of lightning ricocheted through the small space. Taidra hid in his sheets like a child as the loud clap of lightning refused to let him sleep. 

He hated storms. As a child, as an adult, as a soldier and now as a cripple - his leg ached. A low deep ache that occasionally shifted into less of pins and needles and more fire and daggers. Rubbing his leg didn't help much. He couldn't get the same pressure that Innofe or Brett could. Innofe continued to babysit Wiljam, who had almost been zapped several times now. Brett slept peacefully in his quarters, partly due to the large amount of moonshine he'd inhaled to knock himself to sleep forcefully. 

Wiljam missed another strike. Yuin grabbed him this time, his dread continuing to spark, but nothing else unusual happened. Yuin had no history of magic, and none of the experiments acted odd around him to suggest anything. 

Taidra tried to calm his A.I but it refused, instead giving him constant updates. It span with too many concerns and worries about Wiljam using new technology. He had fused two pieces of outdated concepts into a third alchemist tech design, and it wasn't tested and had the power to blow up more than just the base and; Taidra banged his head against his pillow.

Stop!

Wiljam knew what he was doing. Yes, he blew things up, but that was in the creative phase. He'd tested this more than Taidra could have hoped. Nothing bad would happen. It was fine. The scientists were meant to find new technology and find forgotten pieces. 

The base mainframe hummed in the background, trying to soothe him. It was anxious as well but nowhere near as bad as his own A.I. It blocked out the A.I from his systems, leaving one channel open in case Wiljam or the storm did do something to fire its systems, and it needed somewhere to run. His A.I started to spit out white noise in response. Taidra turned over and tried to suffocate himself in his pillow. His leg hurt, and his head throbbed from the tantrum his A.I pulled from being cut off. 

Wiljam was from a lightning-collecting family. He knew the equipment like the back of his scared hands. It was partly how he had gotten into mechanics. Wiljam had done this a thousand times without blowing up despite the type of electricity which was dealt, and he likely would this time as well. 

There was a knock at the door before it slid open with the nasty grind of someone not strong enough to lift the metal. Taidra stayed still, relaxing his breathing as he tried to tell who it was. It wasn't Sol's knock. 

"Taidra?" Oira's voice said, "Are you awake?"

"Yeah, the wind's too loud," Taidra said, his voice lightly muffled from under the blankets. Would wriggling out of his cocoon of sheets would hide how childish he looked like this? He sat up and found Oira looking pale and lost in the doorway.  Oira didn't like storms. "Want to wait with me for the storm to pass over?" 

Oira nodded, sinking in on himself. Oira was too old to be scared of storms. He was too young not to pull Taidra's heartstrings at the sight of him looking like a ghost. Taidra untangled himself and flapped the covers out to let Oira crawl in. His skin was cold where he brushed against Taidra. He didn't try to curl up or cuddle into Taidra, he settled in touching range where his body heat had Taidra's hair sticking up on end. Taidra had the letter in his jacket pocket. 

"How long did it take you to calm Sol?"

Taidra let out a heartfelt groan. "Sol is worse than Kanan but easier than my cousins. All pointy knees and hanging from the rafters. I let him climb the walls above his bed until he was tired enough to flop down and read him a story. He gave the required complaints that he's not a baby but settled quickly enough." And also fell asleep before Taidra could finish the chapter.